Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2014

A Dream for On The Move Power Users

My main laptop is a monster 18-inch, 12-pound of a beast, meant for gaming and high-end video production work. I needed something more mobile that I could carry around, yet powerful enough for most of what I do.I settled on this little fellow, and after 8 months of using and abusing it, I have to say I'm impressed.At just over 4 pounds, I can carry it anywhere, in any messenger bag or briefcase without even noticing the extra weight.It's small enough to fit anywhere without getting in the way. The styling and finish is high-quality. This really is a rather cute and adorable little device.Under that cute veneer, though, you'll find some serious chops. Here's a rundown:Pros:1. The screen is crisp, bright, and usable even in outdoor light. Very nice.2. The keyboard is among the most intelligently designed I've ever seen for a device of this size. The keys are full size, and deliver solid feedback for the touch typist. You can actually write a book on this thing without hurting your wrists.3. Speed. This thing blew me away, it boots up blazingly fast for a laptop that uses a hard drive. It runs Microsoft Office seamlessly. It even runs Photoshop respectably well.4. Battery life: VERY impressive. It blew away all my expectations. With moderate use, you'll get at least 6 hours of continuous battery life. If you use wireless internet and heavy-duty applications, you'll get around 4 hours. It also charges rather quickly.5. Ports. This baby comes with 3 USB ports - the fast kind too. It also includes an ethernet port (which is nice, some mini-laptops these days only support wireless network conenctions). And to my delight, it includes an HDMI cable port, so I can easily hook it up to a monitor and use it as a desktop replacement, or connect it to a TV and play movies from it.6. Windows 7. I can't emphasize this enough. You get Windows 7, NOT Windows 8. That's a huge plus. Most of you will know what I mean.Cons:1. The touchpad is barely decent. I actually don't like it. Whenever I use this device I attach a mini-USB optical mouse. Problem solved.2. It has 4GB of DDR3 RAM. This means the memory is very fast, but there isn't enough of it to keep a lot of applications open. You'll really notice the lack of memory when you browse with more than 5 or 6 tabs open. At that point the system starts to stall a bit.3. The onboard sound is ok. The speakers are halfway decent, but don't expect much in this department. If you like to listen to music, you may want to consider attaching a small, cheap audio headphone amplifier. It'll make a real difference.4. It comes with some junk programs installed, like most off-the-shelf laptops. Fortunately, though, Acer made them really easy to remove. Uninstalling them took less than 10 minutes.Overall I highly recommend this laptop for power users who need a super-portable solution.I also recommend getting the laptop pouch/holder that amazon recommends. It's only about $10 and really makes things easier when you're on the move.... Read more...

Reviewed in Canada on April 9, 2014

Found what I had been looking for

This Notebook is exactly what I've been looking for. A small light but powerfull laptop for day to day work on the move... Read more...

Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2013

Surprisingly powerful little laptop. Although not perfect, it is an excellent buy considering the price and functionality.

Pros:+Windows 7 64-bit instead of the woeful windows 8 means this laptop is way more user-friendly and less frustrating to use.+Very small, lightweight, and portable!!+Powerful (fully functional PC as opposed to a chromebook that doesn't allow for Microsoft Office etc.)+Fast bootup times and operating system (especially once you remove bloatware and disable unnecessary visual perks)+Long battery life, especially if yours comes with the 6-cell battery (6.5 hour life with low-resource programs)+Wifi works great and it also has bluetooth for wireless mouse, a webcam, and an SD card reader+Has 3 usb ports, a vga output and an HDMI output so it is great for presentations with projectors+Not a touchscreen (those things are so imprecise and frustrating)+Very reasonably priced (especially compared to tablets that are less functional!)Cons:-The 6-cell battery is larger and does not sit flush with laptop case so it makes the laptop sit at an angle. Although this doesn't really impact functionality, it looks a bit odd.-The "home" and "end" functions can only be used when holding the Function key which takes some getting used to, especially for complex keyboard tasks like "ctrl, shift, home" (which becomes "ctrl, shift, function, home"). Likewise, the arrow keys and page up/page down keys are very small.-It has a trackpad (though to be fair, I have a bias against all of them). Although the laptop does come with software to customize the trackpad a great deal (including scrolling, two-finger commands, 3-finger commands, etc.), I personally prefer a mouse.-Acer, like most brands nowadays, pre-installs a fair amount of bloatware so it took me an hour or two to get rid of all the unnecessary programs and trial-version software.Final thoughts:If you want a very small, yet powerful windows-based laptop that does not have Windows 8, this is the best one I could find after days of searching. Although it does have a few quirks and some bloatware to remove, after several days of intensive usage in graduate school I must say I am extremely pleased with this product. I got this laptop because I already have a gaming PC at home so I just needed something for grad school so that I could work away from home when needed. If this were my only PC, I would probably get something with a larger screen. That being said, you can always customize windows and zoom-in in your browsers and programs to maximize the monitor it does have. For an on-the-go workstation, this laptop works marvelously. One other thing to keep in mind is that because this laptop does not have a disc-drive, it is advisable to make an image of windows 7 on a usb flash drive, which requires around 14 gb of space. Something to consider.... Read more...

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